Weekend in New England
by VampirePam
Summary: When Harvey takes Mike on a business trip involving horseback riding, he has no clue that his associate is terrified of horses. Not wanting to disappoint Harvey, Mike takes too much Valium to relax, and ends up taking a fall.  Harvey takes care of him.


"You wanted to see me?" Mike asked, popping his head into Harvey's office.

"Yes, I did," Harvey said distractedly, giving Mike only a brief glance before returning his attention to the vast piles of papers on his desk. "I need you for the weekend."

"Okay," Mike said, heaving a resigned sigh to hide the fact that he was secretly thrilled at the prospect of spending yet another working weekend with his boss, "What time do you want me at your place?"

"Actually, we'll be spending the time upstate entertaining a potential client," Harvey corrected. "Phillip Tracy, caretaker of some very old millions, is in need of new representation, but he has doubts that Pearson Hardman is possessed of the proper social clout to hobnob with his country club set. At Jessica's behest, I have bribed my good friend Paul Drake with Yankee season tickets to lend me his place for the weekend so that I may play the proper country squire and convince Mr. Tracy to sign with us."

"Where do I come in?" Mike asked, a bit confused.

"You," Harvey said, "are going to be my personal blue blood encyclopedia. I need you to study up on yachting, lobster, a capella groups, bermuda shorts, and anything else you think WASPs might enjoy discussing before Mr. Tracy gets there on Sunday."

"Okay, can do," Mike said affirmatively, before thinking to ask, "But wait, you actually went to Harvard; you're honestly telling me WASP 101 wasn't a required course?"

"My time at Harvard was spent hitting on my classmates and hitting the books," Harvey said dryly, "Usually in that order. This didn't leave me much time for socializing with the 'good old boys'."

"Fair enough," Mike acquiesced with a smile and a nod. "So if he's getting there on Sunday, what are we doing for the rest of the weekend?"

"Mr. Tracy is an expert equestrian and insists on doing much of his business on horseback. I figured we'd need Friday and Saturday to get you comfortable enough on a horse to not completely embarrass me in front of Mr. Tracy."

Mike's face grew a couple shades paler, but Harvey was too focused on his papers to notice. "You...need me...to ride...a horse?" Mike asked, trying to keep the panic bubbling up in his chest from seeping into his voice.

"I learned at a birthday party when I was twelve, I trust that you can manage it now," Harvey said dryly. "Ray and I will pick you up at your place, 10 on Friday. Oh, and you'll need to pick up some high-end, casual clothes, on the preppy side. Think ."

Mike was staring blankly at him, trying his best not to hyperventilate, when Harvey looked up and said, "That's it, you can go now."

Mike nodded mutely and fled from the room, but Harvey had only a moment to ponder his associate's puzzling behavior before his phone rang, summoning him back into the hectic buzz of subpoenas and witness statements.

Mike felt sick and out of breath as he walked swiftly down the hall, not stopping until he had reached Rachel's office and plopped himself down in one of her chairs.

"Listen, as much as I'd love to talk, I'm really swamped with -" Rachel began, but she stopped the second she saw the stricken look on his face. "God, Mike, you look like hell, what happened?"

"Harvey," Mike started to explain, using all his extra energy to keep his breathing level, "wants me to go upstate with him for the weekend."

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Rachel asked, confused. "I mean, this could be just the chance you've been waiting for - you, Harvey, all that fresh country air. Sounds pretty romantic to me."

"It would be, it's just..." Mike swallowed hard. "The client's this big equestrian enthusiast, and Harvey needs me...to ride a horse."

"Ah, of course," Rachel said, her voice exuding understanding and sympathy. She had learned of Mike's terror of horses a few months back when a police horse had suddenly reared, nearly bucking its rider, near where the two of them were having lunch in Central Park. Although no one had been hurt, it had still taken Rachel a good half an hour to calm Mike down.

"I'm sure if you tell Harvey, he'll understand," she offered.

"Of course he wouldn't understand!" Mike exclaimed. "He's Harvey Specter, one of the toughest guys in the business; he would never let a stupid phobia stop him from landing a client, and he certainly won't accept it as an excuse from me."

"I don't think you're giving Harvey enough credit, Mike," Rachel objected. "He cares about you, however much he pretends he doesn't."

"Thanks, Rachel, but it's no good," Mike said with a heavy sigh, "I'm just going to have to think of something. I'll let you get back to work now."

"Okay," Rachel said doubtfully, "I still think you should just tell him, but I wish you luck."

Mike gave her a smile that he hoped was reassuring before leaving her office to return to his cubicle. He had three days to think of something that could get him on a horse long enough to convince Harvey he wasn't weak and worthless, and Mike was pretty sure you needed more notice than that to call in a miracle.

The next few days flew by in a flurry of shopping, memorizing, and rehearsing conversation; Mike was determined that, at the very least, he would be expertly prepared to assist Harvey in wooing Mr. Tracy. But as he set aside his last file and clicked his suitcase closed at one o'clock on Friday morning, Mike was still despairing at figuring out a solution to his horse problem.

He stumbled into the bathroom, splashed some cold water on his face, and opened the medicine cabinet, intending to grab a couple Advil. What he found instead, however, was a small, prescription bottle with Trevor's name on it. Curious, Mike picked it up, and when he looked closer at the label, saw that it was Valium; Trevor had presumably conned some doctor into prescribing it to him, intending to sell it on the street, but had then accidentally left it at Mike's place.

Mike was about to put the bottle back when a light went on in the back of his head - this could be the answer to all his problems. He knew taking someone else's prescription medication was risky, but at this point, he was all out of options. Convinced this was his only shot, he slipped the bottle into his small, black carry-on, switched off the lights, and trudged into his bedroom to get a few hours sleep before Harvey came to fetch him.

They had arrived at the country house mid-afternoon on Friday, and Mike thought vaguely that under different circumstances, it would have been an ideal place to spend the weekend with Harvey. The house was large, but homey, the rooms warmly furnished, and the beds surprisingly comfortable.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," Harvey called out, as he deposited his things in the master bedroom, "You change into something riding appropriate, I'll bring the horses round. Meet me outside in twenty minutes."

Mike was overcome with a sudden urge to tell Harvey everything, but while he was getting his courage up, he heard the front door slam shut, signaling that his chance had already come and gone.

Instead, he went into the bathroom, pulled out the pill bottle from where he had stashed it in his jeans pocket, and poured a couple Valium into his hand. As he felt his breathing already becoming labored, Mike let a couple more pills tumble out of the bottle before he swallowed the lot of them with a quick chaser of water.

As he went about the business of unpacking and changing into slacks and a polo - his research indicated this would be acceptable riding attire - Mike was soon pleased to note that he was no longer feeling anxious. In fact, not only was he not worried, he actually felt invincible, like he was floating safely above all of his problems.

Feeling giddy from the apparent effectiveness of his plan, Mike skipped merrily out of the house and spotted Harvey a little ways away leading two chestnut-brown horses. He let out a laugh and began to run rapidly across the lawn toward them, much to Harvey's confused astonishment.

"Woo!" Mike shouted, raising both his hands in the air as he jogged to a halt beside Harvey, "Let's do this!"

"Are you feeling all right, Mike?" Harvey asked, looking distinctly worried. "I mean, first you were so quiet on the drive up, and now..."

"Yeah, I'm great!" Mike exclaimed, stumbling about from side to side. "I'm just so excited to do...you know...the horse...thing! Here, check this out!" Mike suddenly began speaking in a strange, deep voice, stringing words together haphazardly, "Hello there, boys and girls! I'm the Lone Ranger, and this is my horse Tigger! He's bouncy, bouncy...er...fun, fun!" Mere seconds later, Harvey could only watch in horror as Mike launched himself at one of the unsuspecting quadrupeds, slid clean across the saddle, and fell flat on his face on the opposite side of the horse.

"Mike!" Harvey shouted, dashing over, "I'm coming - don't move, okay?"

He quickly knelt beside the younger man, who was looking around, dazed, and began running his hands all over Mike's body, hunting for permanent damage. "Mike? Mike? Come on, kid, talk to me, where does it hurt?"

Mike raised his head in Harvey's general direction, though his gaze remained distinctly unfocused, as he complained, "Owwww...that wasn't supposed to happen. Tiggers always land on their feet! Besides, I distinctly remember putting the ground over there." He tried to motion with his arm, but the wooziness resulted in him instead raising it a few inches off the ground, spinning it in a vague sort of circle, then letting it fall on the sand again with a light thud.

Harvey cupped Mike's face in his hands, carefully in case he had a concussion, and said gently, but firmly, "Mike, I need you to focus on me, okay? Can you do that?"

To Harvey's relief, Mike's gaze finally met with his, but his fears of head injury worsened when Mike smiled and slurred out, "Did anyone ever tell you...you have really pretty eyes?"

"Tons of people, all the time," Harvey replied distractedly, desperate to keep Mike talking. "I've had a couple judges hold me in contempt for distracting them with my pretty eyes."

"You're funny," Mike said with a giggle, reaching out his index finger to tap Harvey playfully on the nose, but finding himself unable to complete the gesture, his arm floundering aimlessly until Harvey caught his hand and held it steady.

"Yeah, I'm a laugh riot," Harvey said quietly, the seriousness of his tone and expression making his words ring hollow.

Mike leaned up a couple inches and began to whisper conspiratorially, clearly expending quite some effort, "Since you're so funny, I'll tell you a secret. But you have to promise not tell Harvey. He's not funny, but his eyes are even prettier than yours."

Harvey smiled in spite of himself. "All right, I promise."

Mike rapidly propelled his torso into an upright position, but before he could say anything, the world tilted and spun again.

"Easy, Mike," Harvey said, quickly shifting his body around to support Mike's thin, wobbling frame, "I've got you."

"Mmmm," Mike mumbled, letting his head fall back onto Harvey's shoulder, "You're hot."

"Wait, was that your secret?" Harvey asked, suddenly afraid he had something other than Mike's physical well-being to worry about.

"No, silly," Mike said, raising a hand just high enough to tap Harvey weakly on the shoulder, "I meant your temperature. Although..."

"Um, Mike..." Harvey began, very sure he didn't want to have that conversation right now.

"What I was going to tell you," Mike continued as if Harvey had not spoken, "was that I..." He tried to make a pretence of looking around, but as his head was still buried in the crook of Harvey's neck, all that came of it was a very slight neck pivot before he leaned up to whisper, "Took some happy pills."

Harvey felt his stomach drop. "Happy pills?" He twisted his head round to look at Mike as he demanded urgently, "Mike, what did you take?"

"Oh, you know," Mike said, smiling hazily, "Just a little Valium...okay, a lot of Valium, I don't know, I was really freaking out."

"Jesus, Mike," Harvey exclaimed, instinctively raising a hand to brush Mike's hair back from where it had fallen over his forehead, "Why the hell did you do that?"

"I didn't want to you to be disappointed in me," Mike said, suddenly seeming more lucid than he had in hours. "But now you are, I can tell!"

Seeing how heart-broken Mike looked as he said this, Harvey replied reassuringly, "Don't be silly, kid. You just screwed up a little bit; nothing to get upset over."

Mike's face instantly broke into a wide smile as he said, "Really? You mean it? You're the best, Harvey." He snuggled in close to Harvey once more.

Unsure how to respond, Harvey patted Mike's head awkwardly until it occurred to him to ask, "Wait...why did you think I was going to be disappointed in you?"

"That's another secret," Mike said determinedly, "And I won't tell you, not even if you are the captain of this starship."

"Okay, that's it, we're getting you back to the house," Harvey declared, allowing himself to give in to the worry. He gave Mike a quick once-over and mentally calculated the odds of Mike trying to walk on his own not ending in disaster. With a sigh, he swung a hand under Mike's legs, placed the other firmly on his back and, very carefully, got to his feet.

"My hero," Mike murmured happily, removing his head from Harvey's shoulder to declare to the empty grounds, "We shall be married in the morning!"

Harvey would have laughed if he wasn't so damned scared. "I hope you know that you're never going to hear the end of this the second you're yourself again," he promised as he began to walk back toward the house.

" 'M sorry, Harvey," Mike mumbled, suddenly sounding very far away, "Didn't mean…this to happen…thought it would…help…"

"Help what, Mike?" Harvey asked, but when he looked down at his associate, Mike was once again slumped against his shoulder, unconscious.

"Mike? Mike?" Harvey shouted, shaking him gently to no response. "Shit," he muttered under his breath, frantically doubling his pace, "When you're feeling better, Mike Ross, I swear I'm going to kill you myself."

The first thing Mike registered when he blearily open his eyes a couple hours later was a pair of cheery gingham curtains fluttering in front of a large window. The second thing was his boss, watching him intently from his position in a flowered armchair that looked so not Harvey-like that, under different circumstances, it would have given Mike a good chuckle.

"You know, for a former pot dealer, you sure are a lightweight when it comes to drugs," Harvey said lightly, but Mike could see the worry lurking just under the smile.

"Am I fired?" Mike asked weakly, propping himself up on the headboard.

"You probably should be," Harvey replied ruefully, prying himself out of the chair to sit next to Mike on the bed. "Pulling a stunt like that."

"I am so sorry, Harvey," Mike said, looking earnestly into Harvey's eyes

"Yes, you said that," Harvey replied, his tone tinged with amusement, "Right after you called me your hero and said that we would 'be married in the morning'?"

Mike's face flushed as he muttered, "I was hoping I'd dreamed that part..."

Harvey laughed, but after a moment his expression soon grew serious once again as he asked, "What the hell were you thinking, Mike? Trying to get on a horse in that state - you could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I know," Mike said with a sigh, "I realize now how stupid it was."

"You're damn right it was stupid!" Harvey shouted, covertly moving his hands behind his back so Mike couldn't see they were shaking. "What possible reason could you have for doing something like that?"

Seeing no way out of it now, Mike took a deep breath and said slowly, "When I was seven years old, I saw a man get trampled to death by a carriage horse. My grandmother tried to shield me from it, but the damage was already done. Ever since, I get the shakes from even looking at a horse. So when you told me about this trip, I just panicked; I thought that maybe the Valium would tamp down the fear enough that I could get on a horse without completely freaking out."

As he listened to Mike's explanation, Harvey felt the anger completely drain out of him. He instinctively placed a hand over Mike's as he said patiently, "Mike, you should have told me. I'm not a monster; I would have understood."

Surprise flared in Mike's eyes, and he laid his other hand on top of Harvey's on the bed. "It's not that, Harvey. I just feel like I've been doing nothing but letting you down lately, and I was determined not to let it happen again."

"Mike," Harvey said, looking intently at him, "I never want you endangering your life for my sake, not under any circumstances. Promise me that if anything like this ever comes up again, you'll come to me, and we can figure it out together."

"I promise," Mike said quickly, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Good," Harvey said after a moment, apparently satisfied that Mike meant it. "I don't know if I can take you scaring me like that again."

"I really am sorry, Harvey," Mike said sincerely.

"And after I went to all the trouble of arranging a lovely, romantic weekend for the two of us. It's just ungrateful, that's what it is."

"I know, Harvey, I - wait, what now?" Mike stopped mid-sentence, sure he heard wrong.

"Oh, what, you thought me inviting you to spend the weekend horseback riding in upstate New York was all for a client?" Harvey asked, leaning toward Mike, a shark-like grin on his face.

"So, let me get this straight - you actually arranged all of this to...to seduce me?" Mike still couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

"That depends," Harvey said, looking a bit hesitant for the first time, "Would it have worked?"

Mike just stared at Harvey for a few moments, letting the shock of this revelation wash over him: Harvey wanted him. Harvey, his gorgeous, brilliant boss about whom he'd been having some very unprofessional thoughts for months, wanted _him._

Mike was so shocked that it was only when Harvey seemed about to say something further, probably to make some joke or denial, that Mike snapped out of his reverie and leaned forward to kiss him. Harvey stayed static for only a split second before he returned the kiss eagerly and shifted closer to Mike on the bed to find a better angle. As Mike tentatively wrapped his arms around Harvey's torso, he would have sworn he could actually feel all the suppressed energy coiled inside the other man, just waiting to be unleashed.

Despite this, the kiss remained surprisingly gentle, almost exploratory. It was only when Harvey raised his hand ever so lightly to Mike's cheek that Mike realized Harvey was worried about hurting him. This thought sent a current of warmth through Mike's body, so much so that when he finally broke the kiss, he would have sworn it had done wonders for his injuries.

"I'm to take that as a yes, then?" Harvey asked a bit breathlessly, his smile uncharacteristically sincere.

"I would say that is a reasonable conclusion to reach, yes," Mike agreed, his own grin a near perfect match for Harvey's. "I mean, you choosing to take me on a date that involved confronting my biggest fear was a bit of a mis-step, but otherwise you get full points for seduction technique."

"Never fear, I will not be making that mistake again," Harvey promised, his face clouding briefly as he brushed his fingers lightly over Mike's bruised left shoulder. "Still, that does leave us with a rather large hole in our plans for the evening."

"I think my recent losing battle with the lawn eliminates anything involving hiking...or running, swimming, bike-riding...and all other activities which involve utilizing a full range of motion."

"Not a problem," Harvey said determinedly, "I know just the thing." He darted from the room only to return a few minutes later holding a rectangular box in both hands and looking triumphant.

"Scrabble?" Mike asked, surprised. "Oh, very sexy."

"It is the way I play it," Harvey replied, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "Now scoot over."

Three hours and countless word arguments later, Mike at last felt the weariness of the day start to overwhelm him.

"You're positive?" Harvey was asking him doubtfully.

"Yes, Harvey, I'm positive that engorged starts with an 'e'" Mike said, rolling his eyes, "Just like I was positive fellatio has two 'l's, not one. You know, you'd be doing a lot better if you didn't spend all your time trying to make your letters spell something dirty."

"Where would the fun be in that?" Harvey asked as he reluctantly removed the offending word from the board. He was just about to prepare another inappropriate offering when he caught sight of Mike trying to stifle another yawn. "Feeling tired, rookie?"

"No," Mike responded automatically, but after a second's pause amended, "Yes. God yes. I can barely keep my eyes open."

"I'm going to take that as you ceding victory," Harvey pronounced as he packed up the game and returned it to its box. There were a few seconds of slightly awkward silence before Harvey stood up, Scrabble box in hand, and said, "Well, you need to get some rest. I should go."

"Should you?" Mike asked, looking up at him.

"I don't know, Mike, should I?" Harvey responded, suddenly unsure.

"No," Mike said firmly. He shifted so that he was underneath the covers and then patted the spot beside him on the bed. Harvey smiled and quickly removed his tie and shirt before sliding in next to Mike.

"Did you want to -?" Mike let the question hang in the air.

"Not tonight, Mike," Harvey said quietly. "The doctor I phoned said you're probably just a bit banged up, but I don't want to risk making anything worse."

Mike sighed and said, "Disappointing, but probably best. Besides, when it does happen, I don't want there to be any risk of me falling asleep."

"Trust me - there definitely won't be," Harvey said, and even in the dark Mike could tell that he was grinning.

Mike nudged Harvey's arm with the top of his head, and Harvey took the hint and wrapped it around Mike's shoulders so the other man could settle on his chest. They lay there for a few minutes until Mike said quietly, "I'm sorry this didn't turn out the way you planned."

"Nonsense," Harvey said, running a hand through Mike's hair in a motion Mike found distinctly soothing, "This is perfect. Really."

"Good," Mike said, relieved.

"Besides," Harvey added mischievously, "We still have tomorrow night to explore just what can be done without a full range of motion."

Mike laughed and laced his fingers through Harvey's. "Good night, Harvey."

Harvey brushed hips lips lightly over Mike's forehead before whispering, "Good night, Mike."


End file.
